Do You Have Good Law?

Be Sure You’re Citing Good Law

Build more effective arguments and find more

supporting authority with the Shepard’s Citation

Service, exclusively on the LexisNexis® services. Take

advantage of Shepard’s features to easily improve the

depth and quality of your research. Learn how to find

good law—even in cases that have been overruled.

Shepard’s Signal™ Indicators

Quickly see how closely you need to evaluate a case through Shepard’s Signal Indicators. While these signals will not tell you if your case is good or bad law, they will let you know how much scrutiny to apply in your analysis.

I WARNING: Negative treatment’s indicated

WARNING: Negative case treatment is indicated for statute

I QUESTIONED: Validity questioned by citing references

I CAUTION: Possible negative treatment

I POSITIVE: Positive treatment is indicated

I NEUTRAL: Citing references with treatment is available

I CITED BY: Citation information is available

Conducting a Validation Check

The most common use for Shepard’s is a good law/bad law check. Shepard’s lists all the cases citing your case, and tells you what they are saying about your case. You must Shepardize® whenever citing to authority in a brief, memo or other legal document.

• Sign-on with your ID & Password at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool

• Click the red Research Now button at the top right of the page.

• Type 22 F.3d 736 in the Quick Tools form.

• Click the Shepardize® button.

• View the Shepard’s Summary to see the complete view of your case.

Note: The Shepard’s Summary displays both the good and the bad law ensuring you do not miss any important cases.

Be Confident Your Case is Good Law

See What Happened Right Up-front

The Shepard’s Summary makes it easy-to-read and navigate a Shepard’s report by surfacing the most important information. Here you can quickly see and link to the cases with the strongest positive and negative analysis for your case.

Customize Your Report to Your Specific Issue

You can get the information relevant to you faster by using the FOCUS™-Restrict By template. FOCUS™-Restrict By lets you customize your Shepard’s report by:

• Issue: Search for points of law, fact patterns or terms of art within the citing references.

• Analysis: Restrict results to specific editorial phrases.

• Jurisdictions: Restrict results to citing references from certain jurisdictions.

• Headnotes: Restrict results to certain headnotes.

• Date: Restrict results to citing references from a certain year.

Note: Through FOCUS™-Restrict By you can customize Shepard’s reports in one intuitive form.

Get to the Analysis You Need Faster:

Shepard’s is a powerful service for research as well as validation checking. Because Shepard’s provides positive analysis it is possible to find other cases that agree with yours to help build up your authorities.

• Click the Shepard’s tab at the top of the page.

• Type 390 U.S. 629 in the Enter Citation to be Checked form.

• Click the Check button.

• Click the blue FOCUS™-Restrict By link at the top of the Shepard’s report.

• Enter video games in the FOCUS Terms box.

• Select Followed under Analysis available in FULL.

• Select 7th Circuit under Jurisdictions available in FULL.

• Click the red Apply button.

Note: Through the FOCUS™-Restrict By template you can quickly find the cases that meet your specific research needs.

Shepard’s also provides citing references to law review articles, Matthew Bender® treatises, statutes, briefs, pleadings and other court documents. You can use these references to find additional secondary authority citing your case to ensure your research is complete.

• Click the Shepard’s® tab at the top of the page.

• Type 390 U.S. 629 in the Enter Citation to be Checked form.

• Click the Check button.

• Click the blue FOCUS™-Restrict By link at the top of the Shepard’s report.

• Enter video games in the FOCUS Terms box.

• Select Law Reviews under Jurisdictions available in FULL.

• Click the red Apply button.

Note: Through the FOCUS™-Restrict By template you can also quickly find the secondary sources on your issue.

Finding More Cases

Finding More Secondary Authority

Shepard’s Table of Authorities shows you how the authority your case relies on has been analyzed. Through TOA you can see the strength of a case’s foundation, letting you know if a case stands on solid ground or if its value has eroded.

• Click the Shepard’s® tab at the top of the page.

• Type 390 U.S. 629 in the Enter Citation to be Checked form.

• Click the Check button.

• Click the blue TOA link at the top of the report

Note: You now have all the cases your case cited to make its arguments. Use FOCUS™-Restrict By to search these cases and find the foundational authority on your issue.

Finding Foundational Authority

Get Research Assistance & Extra Help

• Contact Your Account Executive: Get in-person help and training from your school account executive and check www.lexisnexis.com/myschool for the latest on-campus training information.

• Call our 24/7 Support Line: 800.45.LEXIS (800.455.3947)

• Chat with our Live Support: Click Live Support on Lexis.com.

LexisNexis, the Knowledge Burst logo, lexis.com, Shepard’s, and Shepardize are registered trademarks and Shepard’s Signal and FOCUS are trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. Matthew Bender is a registered trademark of Matthew Bender Properties Inc. © 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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